About Kiri

I am a public school pre-kindergarten teacher, somewhere in flyover-land. I work mornings with a classroom of delightful children, at least two of whom each year have been identified as having special needs of one sort or another.

When I was in college I had no idea I would end up as a teacher, so I majored in History.  A few years after college, I was complaining about my job, when a very good friend turned to me and said, “Why don’t you be a teacher?”

That was it — my light bulb moment.  After that I went to grad school and got a master’s degree in early childhood education.  I started off in daycare, but moved to an urban public school district within a few years, and taught kindergarten for many years.  Now I teach pre-kindergarten, and I love it.

My school is not doing well under NCLB, so a few years ago we began a program to improve our teaching, and thus hopefully improve the children’s test scores.  I was a mentor under that program, in addition to my teaching responsibilities.  Being a mentor was great, because I learned a lot, but the paperwork (and a few other things) started to drag me down.  This school year I will return to working half-time, and look forward to reclaiming my afternoons.

All names have been changed — some years I name my students after children’s book characters, or after fruits and veggies.   Thsi year, it’s animals.  To see who’s who, check my “cast of characters” page.  In addition, some identifying details have been changed to protect people’s privacy.  For more information about my blog, see this post.

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